SAN DIEGO—Fortis Therapeutics concluded September with the close of an $18-million Series A financing led by Avalon Ventures and joined by Bregua Corporation, Lilly Asia Ventures, Osage University Partners and Vivo Capital. The new company is focused on the development of antibody-drug conjugate therapies, and was
founded on technology developed by Dr. Bin Liu, a professor at UCSF, and exclusively in-licensed from
the university. The receptor Fortis will be targeting is over-expressed in late-stage prostate cancer, and the genes that encode it are part of the
chromosome amplification seen in many multiple myeloma patients with poor prognosis.

“We have found a target that is
not only over-expressed in late-stage prostate cancer but is further up-regulated under selective pressures of androgen deprivation therapy,” said Dr.
Marc Nasoff, chief scientific officer of Fortis and COI Pharmaceuticals. “This target could provide a way to attack the ubiquitous problem of androgen
therapy resistance in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.”